Photo By Sgt. Nevada Jack Smith | Air Force Maj. Jared Gailey, a Civil Support Team member unloads equipment during a...... read more read more
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HONOLULU – For more than a decade, America has waged a war on terror. In an age where the threat of a terrorist attack has become an uncomfortable familiarity in our nation, Americans have had to learn and adapt to the real and present possibility of attack.
With the looming threat of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear attacks our country has to be prepared for any possibility and that is why, for the last four years, Hawaii has hosted the Kai Malu O Hawaii exercise.
Kai Malu O Hawaii, which means protected waters of Hawaii, is the State’s premiere maritime event held from April 23- 25, 2012.
This year’s exercise brought Air and Army National Guard service members from seven Civil Support Teams together with the U.S. Army 71st Chemical Company, and federal, state and local first responder agencies to participate in a massive 36-hour operation that tested their skills and resources as they responded to several simulated terrorist attacks.
“Dating back to 2008, every year we have come together as a community to train in this event,” said Ray Toves, the exercise director of KOH 2012. “Each year we escalate it to a different level of challenge, and this is the biggest challenge we have had so far.”
“We have to identify our threats and train accordingly,” he said.
Toves and his team spent six months planning the events that comprised the exercise.
“When someone comes to us to plan it’s our job to validate it by creating the right conditions,” said Toves.
This year, the participants were faced with a scenario involving CBRN attacks from a notional drug cartel.
“It’s not just one location but eight different target sites within the island hitting the responders all at once.”
The exercise started with an attack on a mock drug enforcement conference held at Pier 19 in Honolulu Harbor. Civilian volunteers played the role of victims and the Honolulu Harbor Police acted as the first responders to the scene.
“This exercise brings better communication with all departments,” said Aaron Chu, a harbor police officer. “It also helps the community feel better served when we do this training to stop, deter, and react to WMD.”
The first responders on scene have to quickly assess the situation, develop a plan, and contact the proper support.
“When we exercise, we exercise using a tiered response. The initial response will be coming from the local authorities with police and fire support,” said Toves.
Once first responders realize it is beyond their scope or capability to mitigate the target site or the hazard, they call in additional experts and that’s where the National Guard comes in with their Civil Support Teams.
The seven CSTs participating in KOH 2012 include the 9th CST, California, 10th CST, Washington, 64th CST, New Mexico, 85th CST, Utah, 93rd CST, Hawaii, 94th CST Guam and the 103rd CST, Alaska.
“This is a great training opportunity. Most of the time we work with two or three CSTs so seven in one location is unprecedented,” Said Army Capt. Fernando Perez, Operations Officer for the 9th CST, California Army National Guard.
“Your typical national CST event involves up to four CSTs over a large regional area involving multiple states,” said Toves, “this exercise has seven CSTs in one state interacting with the first responders of the entire island.”
With so many agencies working together one scenario is not enough.
“We have seven CSTs, local responders, and eight targets within the island, this mission will tax our resources all the way from local to federal resources,” said Toves.
Throughout the first day the participants were subjected to a myriad of situations they had to respond to, including a raid on a meth lab, a rescue mission on a decommissioned naval ship, response to suspicious packages, and investigating a stolen tugboat.
“Nobody can ever tell what is going to hit us with a terrorist threat,” said Toves. Hawaii relies on its waterways and harbors for 98% of its commercial trade.
“We know that the harbors are the biggest threat to our economy, to neglect that fact is actually setting us up for failure and that is why we train for the worst,” said Toves.
No matter how much an agency trains, no one agency is equipped to solve all the problems and each group has a different way of tackling an escalating situation.
“I have been looking forward to working with so many CSTs and agencies because I will get to see how seven different states respond to emergencies,” said Perez, a Cerritos, Calif. native, “and I’m always looking forward to working with local authorities because that is the main role of a CST,” said Perez.
Though the ultimate goal of KOH 2012 is to better train responders to react, one of the biggest parts of the exercise is overcoming its biggest obstacle, effective communication.
“Bad communications can disrupt any response. During the past few years [participants] have graduated to a higher level of expertise but communication still remains the biggest obstacle and that’s why this training is so important,” said Toves. “Having done this now for four years these guys are more than capable of executing operations at a running pace.”
“At the end of any exercise we look for lessons learned,” said Toves. “We have to work as a family and as a collective response unit here within Hawaii. So as we train, communication is improved and that is what makes it so important.”
With the exercise finished Toves commented on his ambitions for future operations.
“What I would like to see is for the entire Hawaiian Island chain involved in this exercise. Our ultimate goal is to make sure that every island, every county, has trained for a maritime attack so that they can sustain themselves until more resources become available,” said Toves. “We are not just sitting back earning our paychecks as responders, but constantly training so we are ready to respond.”
Being an island state separated from the mainland by thousands of miles of water, Hawaii may seem vulnerable but with constant training by its first responders, looks may be deceiving.
| Date Taken: | 04.24.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2012 19:47 |
| Story ID: | 87499 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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